Moab 2013

Over Thanksgiving Break we went to Moab with Michelle and Marti's family.  We have never been on a family vacation besides Bear Lake this summer.  We rented a car and stayed in a hotel for two nights.  Super fun.  The first day, we Drove to Moab, got our tree permit, THEN went on a super fun hike to Delicate Arch.  Marti and I parked the cars, and the rest of them hiked up the hill.  We got some great pics.  I don't have any yet, because Marti had to hang back with me to get me up the hill to the top.  It was Great!  Jack and Nick did great and I finally got there.  Thanks to Marti.  We hiked up at dusk and it was kindof chilly.  SOO fun.  Then we went and ate at Pizza Hut.

Day two, we got up and started on our jaunt to get our Christmas tree.  We drove about an hour and then dropped off my rental car beause it wouldn't make it up the hill anymore and we all climbed in with Marti.  We kept going to the top and finally got out and hiked around to find our tree.  It was a beautiful day.  We found a couple of winners of a tree.  Andrew chopped them down along with Mckenna and dragged them to the car.  We found a sledding hill after and had some fun sledding.

We came back to the rental car and found it had slid backwards and across the street.  SO lucky it didn't slide off the cliff!  That would have been hard to explan to the Enterprise rental people.  We drove around and saw some petroglyphs for Nick.  He is studying Utah in 4th grade so he wanted to see them.

We left the next day.  We stopped in one city (can't remember which one) for a potty break and lunch.  Some of us wanted blimpie and some wanted burger king.  We are getting out of the car and Andrew was getting my purse since he wanted me to pay and he dumped my wallet all over the ground.  Receipts, credit adds, rewards cards, and money everywhere!  I was a bit irritated but tried to keep my cool...got our lunch then on our way to get gas.  Abi was putting in the gas and spilled it all over the car, the ground and all over her shoes!  Brooke and couldn't believe them.  I have failed to raise them.  Andrew says to Brooke " Brooke, the reason you don't do anything stupid is because you never do anything!". Soo funny and true.  Laughed all the way home.  We had a great trip.  Trying to make memories.  I hope they realize that!

 

Nick

Brooke and McKenna

McKenna

Nick

All of us

Jack

Brooke,McKenna, Abi

Jack

Michelle on way to restroom

Michelle and Abi

Andrew

Jack

 

Andrew, Jack, Brooke, Nick, Maureen and Abi

Nick couldn't wait

 

McKenna about to fall in the gorge

nick, Jack and Marti on way to some bridge

Christmas Thoughts 2013

Christmas is bitter sweet for me.  It was sweet while my children were young, but now that I'm the main bread winner in the family (and have been for the past 8 years..and have been my entire married life I just didn't know that) Christmas is a source of stress. I can't make ends meet each month, then throw a very expensive holiday in the picture and it is unbelievably stressful.  Lose sleep kind of stressful.  Pit in the stomach since october kind of stressful.  It seems the entire world has my problem, but no one else seems to dislike the holiday like I do.

The thing is, is that I LOVE to shop.  Especially for my family, the people that I love the most.  I love that stores are open late and there are super fun things to do.  But during all of that, I'm worried about how much it will cost.  Will my choices be good enough?  Will my family finally realize that we are poor?  I don't want them to feel like they are deprived or less desired because we have or they receive soo little.  all during church we are taught to remember the reason for the season.  That is a great idea. Even if we remember Jesus Christ Birth, I still have the money problem with the gift buying overshadowing that fabulous event.

However the Lord seems to remember me in my poverty and pain and crustiness.  This week, our RS president called me and said she had an anonymous donation for me.  .  She brought over two gift cards.  $100 to Target and $50 to Walmart.  Wow.  She said that I work so hard.  It is true that I do work hard but I don't deserve that!  I was totally caught off guard.  I'm not popular or belong to the clique or even the bunko group.  I feel like I go unnoticed all the time.  Soo kind for them to remember me!  It does relieve some of the stress and worry!  Which really, is when the spirit of Christ can enter you heart.

I have started an article to send into the Ensign about Christmas but I Have misplaced it.  I think I will begin again.  I'll write more later about what I wanted to send into the Ensign.